DADT & GITMO

" Appeals court judges deciding whether to release a Guantanamo Bay detainee asked Friday: If once an al-Qaida member, always an al-Qaida member?The Obama administration has appealed an order for the release of Mohamedou Ould Salahi, who has been accused of helping recruit Sept. 11 hijackers. A lower court judge said Salahi should be freed because he was abused by interrogators at the Naval-run prison in Cuba and later retracted his confession to arranging travel for two hijackers.Salahi admits he joined al-Qaida in the early 1990s to fight communists in Afghanistan. But he says he stopped fighting for the organization before it turned against the United States.The 9/11 commission report described Salahi as a significant al-Qaida operative who instructed hijackers how to reach Afghanistan to train for jihad. In court filings, the Justice Department says in October 1999, Salahi encouraged Ramzi bin al Shibh, Marwan al Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah to join. Al Shehhi and Jarrah became two of the hijackers and Bin al Shibh helped coordinate the 9/11 plot." (SOURCE)

"Next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to begin floor debate on a defense authorization bill that would repeal the Clinton-era "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy and allow homosexuals to serve openly in the armed forces. Last month, a top military official offered a glimpse of how the military might look should the new policy take effect: Those serving who oppose the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) agenda are no longer welcome.Those were the views of Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, the Army's deputy chief of staff in charge of personnel matters who spoke about "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" before several hundred troops at the European Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. "Unfortunately, we have a minority of service members who are still racists and bigoted and you will never be able to get rid of all of them," Lt. Gen. Bostick said. "But these people opposing this new policy will need to get with the program, and if they can't, they need to get out. No matter how much training and education of those in opposition, you're always going to have those that oppose this on moral and religious grounds just like you still have racists today." (SOURCE)